I’ve been saying this for years — usually with people rolling their eyes at me — that AI wouldn’t just tweak the workplace, it would bulldoze it. Well, here we are.

Eric Vaughan, CEO of IgniteTech, didn’t ease his people into the future. He didn’t offer a gentle seminar or a “see how it goes” trial. No. He ripped the company down to the studs. Eighty percent of the workforce gone. Out. Replaced.

Why? Because they didn’t believe. That’s the word he kept coming back to — belief. He gave his team training money, he launched something called AI Mondays where every single worker, from sales to marketing to engineers, had to put aside their normal work and only focus on AI (AOL). No calls, no budgets, no excuses. Just AI.

And still? Resistance. Sabotage, even. The tech staff — the ones you’d think would get it first — were the ones dragging their heels. Vaughan didn’t mince words: “We gave everyone every chance to succeed. My conscience is clear.” (HellerSearch)

I don’t like it. But I get it. If you believe AI is an existential shift — as Vaughan flatly called it — then every doubter looks like an anchor weighing the company down. You can try to convince them. Or you can cut the rope and hire people who are already rowing in the direction you want. He chose the latter.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: AI is both revolution and excuse. Yes, it opens doors, speeds up workflows, and frees people from grunt work. But it also gives every CEO in the world the perfect justification to thin their payroll and slap a glossy “innovation” sticker on the pink slips. You didn’t adapt? Sorry, you’re out. Easy.

So, where does that leave the rest of us? Standing at a fork in the road. You can embrace AI, learn it, bend it into your workflow, and maybe buy yourself time. Or you can resist — and almost guarantee you’ll be cut loose when the next Vaughan comes knocking.

Vaughan insists this isn’t about saving money: “The biggest benefit of AI isn’t cost cutting … it’s eliminating routine work so people can focus on bigger things.” Sounds noble, but tell that to the 80% of his staff who never made it to the “bigger things.”

And that’s the point. The shift isn’t hypothetical anymore. Some companies will reinvent themselves. Others will gut their teams and call it progress. The only real question is whether you’re adapting now… or waiting to implode later.

Because whether we like it or not… it’s already begun.